While Disney's latest Star Wars trilogy didn't reveal exactly why Adam Driver's Kylo Ren had the potential to turn to the dark side, Driver himself thinks Ben Solo's childhood is to blame.
The various comics and novelizations have added to Ben Solo's complicated upbringing, but still, there are some gaps in the story of the brooding villain. There were criticisms that the trilogy failed to flesh out the backstory of Kylo Ren before Episode IX rounded off his arc; however, it turns out Driver had his own theory on what made the villain tick.
Magicians writer Lev Grossman previously penned a behind-the-scenes piece on The Rise of Skywalker, for which he interviewed Driver. Grossman told Inverse he was surprised that Driver's theory about young Ben Solo didn't make it into the final cut. "I think probably the thing that was missing for me, I wanted to see more about Kylo’s childhood," said Grossman. "I thought they would go back to show us more about why he turned to the dark side."
Discussing Ben's family life, Grossman continued, "[Driver] said that both Han Solo and Leia were way too self-absorbed and into this idea of themselves as heroes to really be attentive parents in the way a young and tender Kylo Ren really needed." Lamenting about what could've been, Grossman concluded, "There wasn’t really that much of it in the movie so I just think we have to assume his childhood sucked."
The movies briefly showed Ben Solo's transformation into Kylo Ren after Luke Skywalker sensed the potential darkness within and tried to strike the young apprentice down. Apart from that, Ben Solo's early years were left to the imagination of the audiences. The troubled relationship between Han Solo and Leia Organa was also touched on, but neither J.J. Abrams nor Rian Johnson delved into how they parented Ben.
Though much of Ben Solo's relationship with his parents was left up to interpretation, there were a few moments showing his interaction with them, such as in The Rise of Skywalker, when a dead Han Solo returned to try to persuade his son back to the light side of the Force.
While the trilogy largely failed to give Kylo Ren his unhappy childhood, at least Driver went into the movies with this thought process in mind.